Madero, Francisco

Madero, Francisco (Indalécio)

Francisco Madero, c. 1910.

(credit: Archivo Casasola)

(born Oct. 30, 1873, Parras, Mex.—died Feb. 22, 1913, Mexico City) Mexican revolutionary and president (1911–13). Son of a wealthy landowner, in 1908 he called for honest, participatory elections and an end to the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. Jailed for sedition but released on bail, he incited an armed insurrection that led to Díaz's resignation. He was elected president in 1911. Handicapped by political inexperience and excessive idealism, he was quickly overwhelmed by conflicting pressures from conservatives and revolutionaries, and his administration ended in personal and national disaster when he was assassinated in 1913. See also Mexican Revolution; Pancho Villa; Emiliano Zapata.